Fish products toxic to eastern newts?

This is something I've been meaning to post for a while, but it may already be common knowledge. I keep eastern newts and as many of you know they die easily. Well here is what happened to me. I used Start Right to condition their water when I first started caring for them and I lost a lot of newts. It so happened that the second summer I was caring for them that I had 20 new baby newts and my cousins visited. Their child snuck in my room and turned over the babies cage and the water leaked out. Fortunately it was not long until I found them. Anyway I prepared new water for them and after about an hour I noticed about 5 of them starting to bloat up like they normally would when I found them dead. Only these were still alive. So I pulled them out of the water and after a while the bloating went down. I started to figure maybe the Start Right which is for fish tanks was toxic for them. So I just went outside and dipped some water from the pool where I found them. Those 5 babies did die but after that I started using distilled water and now I use something specifically for amphibians and I have been having a lot less problems with them. Maybe I should have known better in the first place but I thought hey fish and newts both live under water. But it may be something to consider that if you dont get the amounts of Start Right or some other fish product just right that the eastern newts may be sensitive to it. I'd like to know the opinions of anyone who has more experience with them than I do. BTW aren't these little guys just adorable? I have one baby that gets so excited over feeding time that he scratches on the side of the tank and it takes him a while to notice the food. My fiance says they are dumb but I think they are very intelligent because they come to me when I tap on the side of the tank.

Just my opinion,but I would not use any commercialy available chemicals to condition the water.I would think if you collect them locally then the water you found them in would be the best thing to use.Just do partial water changes often and the tank will cycle quickly with the water from the source. The so called bacteria in start right may not be compatable and who knows what other chemicals are in there. In general I think caudates are more sensitive to chemicals and bad water quality than some fish.

BTW I keep Easterns too. They are my favorite of all my newts.

Eastern newts are prone to what I call "inexplicable death syndrome". I've had them die, and I think sometimes it's just something about the water, but it's impossible to figure out WHAT.

When you put them into the water with Start Right, it was tap water, right? And then you changed them to rainwater? Besides the Start Right, there are many, many other chemicals that are different between tap water and outdoor water. It's really impossible to say what caused the problem, and indeed the problem may have been caused by being dumped on the floor, or the sudden change in water, not by any specific chemical.

I have never heard of any problems from people using a wide range of "dechlorinating" products, even the ones that promise to promote healthy slime coat in fish. So I'm reluctant to blame this particular product. But who knows.

Jennifer,
Yes I was using tap water at first and then I used rainwater and then I used distilled water and did not add any chemicials to it. Now I am back to using tap water with an amphibian water conditioner called Aquatize. I don't blame Start Right in particular. It just happened to be the fish product that I chose to use. And I suppose it may be that by the time I quit using the Start Right all the weak newts had died off. This post was just kind of a thought I had and I wanted to see what other people thought. I think I am still gonna stick with what seems to work best for my newts unless I get a new batch that proves me wrong.

Sean,
Yeah I probably would just collect the water they came from but I moved from MS to WA and the place where I live has a lot of scientific labs and nuclear disposal companies. People say dont eat the fish around here. I don't know if its true but I'd like not to test the theory It doesn't rain a lot either so that option is out. I use one of the whisper water filters for terariums too. They like to play in the bubbles sometimes. Cute picture

Aquatize isn't much different than any other de-chlorinator that is used for fish or anything else. The one thing I look is a product that not only eliminates chlorine or chloramine but also removes ammonia. If you live in an area that treats the water with chloramine, which is chlorine bonded to ammonia, it gets rid of both. Also chloramine will not dissipate out of water if set out over night.

Just my thoughts.. I use tap water (as it's pretty safe here in Germany) and I have plenty of aquatic plants and wood in it to give it that nice "pond" flavour. I wouldn't suggest treating water for anything other than chloride. The plants will condition the water nicely.

How were you collecting the rainwater?

Ed